Lobes of brain + Limbic

Cerebral cortex and lobes

Motor areas (Frontal Lobe, Primary Motor Cortex)

Sensory areas (Parietal Lobe, Somatosensory Cortex, Temporal Lobe – Auditory Processing, Occipital Lobe – Visual processing)

Frontal Lobe

Frontal Lobe – concerned w/higher-order functions e.g decision making, reasoning, planning, personality + emotions.
-includes primary motor cortex

Primary Motor Cortex

Control voluntary movements of muscles

-Areas of body that require greater dexterity + complexity of movement have more area of cerebral cortex devoted to them

Parietal Lobe + Somatosensory cortex

Process sensory info (inc temperature + touch), from the skin and body
-responsible for sense of position of body in space, use inputs from the somato cortex.

-in parietal lobe
Receives sensory info from skin + body enabling perception of bodily sensations

Optical lobe

Contains primary visual cortex.
-processes info from the eyes e.g vision, colour, shape and perspective.

Temporal Lobe

Processes auditory info e.g, hearing, sound, recognition of speech
-involved in memory + encoding faces and expression. Links emotion to memory
-amnesia often have damage to temporal lobe

Language centres

Broca’s area (Left Frontal lobe)
-Responsible for production of clear + articulate speech. Coordinates muscles tongue, mouth, vocal cords

Wernicke’s area (Left Temporal lobe)
-Involved in the comprehension of speech

Limbic system

Combines higher mental functions and primitive emotion into one system.

1.Amygdala

2.Hippocampus

3.Thalamus

4.Hypothalamus

5.basal ganglia

Amygdala

Emotion center of brain. Strongly associated w/fear, aggression + pleasure responses. 
-recognize emotional cues in others + influ how respond to emotionally charged situations.

-close to hippo cus important emo experiences need to be transferred to LTM to be recalled

Hippocampus

Found deep in the temporal lobe
-plays essential role in forming new memories abt past experiences. 
-explicit memory (facts)
-transfer short term memories → long term mem

Thalamus

Both the thalamus + hypo = associated w/ changes in emotional reactivity.

-sensory “way-station,” filtering sensory info + send to appropriate areas of brain , through extensive connections w/other structures.

Hypothalamus

Regulates hormones + maintain homeostasis
-control unconscious functions e.g respiration, metabolism + hunger, sleep

Basal ganglia + Dopamine

group of cells deep in the frontal lobes
-organises motor behaviour so smooth + coordinating rule-based habit learning

-relies on dopamine to function @ peak,
↓ dopamine = movements delay + uncoord
Dopamine = carries messages ensure effective planning, initiation and maintenance of motor movements.

Parkisons’s disease (neurodegenerative)

Neurons @ base of brain = degenerate + grad cant function norm
Impairs motor skills (movement and balance) and speech (PMC+ Basal)
-lack of dopamine

Treatment for parkinson’s disease

L-dopa – chemical converted to dopamine by neurons. Alleviates symptoms in the early stages

Deep brain stimulation – neurosurgery (last resort) ,electrically stimulates basal ganglia